Phoenix from the ashes: Ched­dle­ton shed rises again

Less than four months af­ter be­ing se­ri­ously dam­aged by fire, the Chur­net Val­ley Rail­way’s car­riage work­shop at Ched­dle­ton is once again fully op­er­a­tional. Thought to have been caused by weld­ing, the blaze on Septem­ber 24 wrote off BR Mk 1 First Open No. 3095, which was on loan from the Cambrian Her­itage Rail­ways. The fi­nal cost of the dam­age was £139,000. Con­trac­tors fin­ished the re­con­struc­tion of the build­ing be­fore Christ­mas, reusing the orig­i­nal steel frame with new cladding, and the first coach - Mk 1 Res­tau­rant Minia­ture Buf­fet No. E1878 - en­tered the shed on Fe­bru­ary 13 for its restora­tion to con­tinue. To pre­vent a re­cur­rence, says CVR Op­er­a­tions Man­ager Greg Wil­son, a sprin­kler sys­tem was con­sid­ered - “but the fire bri­gade told us that be­cause the fire started in­side the coach, the sprin­klers wouldn’t have been trig­gered un­til it was too late.” In­stead, a new alarm sys­tem, with a por­ta­ble de­tec­tor to go in­side ve­hi­cles, is be­ing dis­cussed.